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Christian Symbolism In Dracula

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for. This choice has consequences, rewarding or punishing effects by going to Heaven or Hell after death depending on what God decides. The vampire is said to be damned, he is a minister of the Devil and therefore an adversary of God and humankind. Vampires offer a false immortality, a continuation of life in misery, contrasting with the real death that leads people to God and Paradise. Within this context, the mortal represents the role of the protagonist hero who offers his or her own life to keep Christianity and mankind safe. In Stoker's Dracula is possible to appreciate the force of Christian symbols and God, motifs that are used to threaten the undead and never calling into question the faith that his character has on those symbols.
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His novel, Dracula, tells the tale of five people who encounter and have to deal with the evil undead vampire Count Dracula, who terrorizes them and even causes two out of the five to become undead like himself. Thankfully, the group eventually discovers a way to eventually vanquish Dracula once and for all, and by the end of the book they destroy him, preventing him from terrorizing the people of Europe once and for all. Stoker explores several significant themes in this book, including the theme of deception. In Dracula, Stoker uses the theme of deception with the characterization of Dracula,

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The central idea of this excerpt from Dracula was the fear of the prisoner living in the castle of Count Dracula who felt trapped and alone. The authors use of first person point of view of the prisoner was able to develop this central idea of fear because prisoner was able to describe his feelings first hand living in the castle with the Count as well as emphasize the thoughts that were scattered inside of his head during this time. An example of the author using first person point of view to help develop the central idea of fear was when the prisoner had realized that he was helpless in the situation of his current living conditions. The prisoner said "I think I must have been mad for the time, for I have behaved much as a rat does in a trap" (lines 4-5).

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Bram Stoker, describes one of the verbal taboos of the Victorian era, violence, through the representation of vampires as “monsters” through the point of view of their victims in his novel Dracula. Stoker portrays violence in three distinct categories- physical, visual and psychological. Each one of these categories is described by one of the antagonists in the Novel, with Count Dracula as the physical aspect of violence, his underlings, the female vampires as the visual and Renfield, the patient at Dr. Seward’s mental asylum, as the psychological aspect of violence. This essay looks at the portrayal of such Categorical violence as different renditions of a “monster” and considers why Stoker would segregate violence in such a manner.

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All throughout the story there is conflicts between the good and the evil. In Stokers novel it’s a battle between the good and the evil. The good defeat Dracula by using Christian references. All throughout the book is a holy war.

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evil (dark). To begin with, light colors, such as white, are highlighted through characters such as Lucy Westenra, as she is both literally and figuratively characterized to be among “the white garments of the angel,” indicating that Lucy is a character who represents all that is pure and noble in a lady (Stoker 209). On the other hand, the vampires in the novel, Count Dracula and the three female vampire wives, are associated with the colors black and red. For example, when Jonathan Harker first encounters Count Dracula, Dracula is revealed to be “clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere” (Stoker 13). This emphasizes his role as an antagonist in the novel.

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In Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, Dracula, the overall and fundamental theme of the book is given away the further you read, expressing Stoker’s view of religion. The novel is an account of the paths taken by many different characters such as Count Dracula, Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra. Since this poem was written with ideas focused primarily on the concepts of evil, as it was viewed during an appearingly-conservative nineteenth and twentieth century society, the book can be seen as a parallel to Eliot’s and others’ own religious quests. While Bram Stoker attempts to acquaint the reader with a frightening tale on the accounts of a dreadful vampire named Count Dracula, he also expresses the goal of strengthening

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The horror genre of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, combined with mild eroticism is able to draw in readers due to the fact that Stoker is able to intricately weave suspenseful sexual scenes/scenes of desire throughout the novel—making it clear that

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Gothic horror novel Dracula, the title character makes only several relatively short appearances, some of which are while in disguise. Throughout the novel, Stoker keeps Count Dracula in the shadows, both literally and figuratively. This essay will describe these appearances and analyze Stoker’s use of them to determine what effect they might have on the impression of the character and the novel overall. It will be claimed that by keeping his title character hidden for much of the novel, Stoker’s Dracula is made much more frightening to the reader. Human beings tend to fear the unknown, and by leaving Dracula to the imagination,

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The appearance and clothing of characters is not the only way of how good vs. evil is exemplified. Iconography is used many times throughout the novel as well. For example, the crucifix in the novel is a notable obstacle, which separates and saves good from evil a few times. A specific example early on in the novel is when Jonathan Harker is in his room within Dracula’s castle. After he cuts himself with his razor, Dracula springs on him at the sight of blood, but as soon as Dracula notices the crucifix hanging below Harkers neck, he backs away and leaves the room.

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In order to defeat Dracula, the protagonists use both religion and rationalism; as a result, arguments in favour of both sides of the debate are presented, which makes it impossible to reduce Dracula to one side or the other. The vampire hunters rely heavily on faith and religious objects, such as crucifixes and the eucharist, which presents an argument in favour of looking beyond rationalism and science to faith. As noted above, Dracula, by his fantastic nature, is something that defies reason, and thus religion is necessary to explain what rationalism cannot. Van Helsing makes a case for this when he urges “I want you to believe… in things you cannot.…I heard once of an American who so defined faith: ‘that which enables us to believe things

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